This blog is a place to read articles about Prescription Safety Glasses & Designer Eyewear. Lens choices,add ons, coatings, and anything else you would like to know about the Optical Industry. Written by an Independent Optician

Saturday, November 12, 2005

EYEWEAR Q & A’S

To my regular readers, thanks for stopping by again, and as always thanks for the comments.As I always say, I love it when people post comments and or questions cause that is basically what I had in mind for this blog, an opportunity to share information in regards to eyewear, and hopefully help people solve their problems.Last post I had a couple of people that were having problems with their local optical retailers, so I'm going to post their comments and address the issues they're facing.Here's the first comment:

Just the one I need to talk to. I am disgusted because I am being given the roundabout by the optometry business. I have worn glasses for over 50 years.I am having trouble trying to buy frames for my lenses. The crappy frames on the market seem to be made to fall apart.When I went for my last pair of glasses, the shop (Sears Optical) refused to make me the lenses that I wanted.I spent good money to have my eyes checked and got my RX for tri-focals,I picked out a frame, and told them I wanted photogrey, real glass lenses, hardened with the invisible line trifocals. I am the customer mind you.They said no. I said what? they said that the glasses would be to heavy for me.I told them that I was the one to make that call.They said they couldn't help me one more time, and I threw a fit.I took out my Sears Gold Card and said I was going to cut it up in a hundred pieces and sent it to Corp. and tell them how I was being treated.They finally submitted my order, but we scowled at each other all the time. They purposely slowed my order down, but finally I got the glasses I wanted. I love them. I absolutely love them. Fast forward to today.I need new frames, but the pie holes will not sell me frames.They say they have nothing to fit the lenses. I ask them to order me some. They say no.Makes me want to use a sharp stick on them so that they need glasses. Sorry, this gets me angry, just thinking about it.I am going to lodge a complaint with the state.This is colusion. All of the firms tell me the same thing. I cannot get any place to sell me frames.This is a perfect example of government helping business screw the consumer.Boy am I hot.

I sympathize with this person, and unfortunately, sad but true I hear this kind of thing all the time in my shop. First off it's not the government or the state that is giving you the runaround, they don't regulate to optical shops or any business for that matter how they treat their customers, but you could contact your local Better Business Bureau, you would probably get farther with them than contacting the state.Now I don't want to sound arrogant or like I'm the only good optician out there in the optical industry, but the sad truth is, there is a real problem in my industry with good customer service, I'm not sure why that is, but it is a fact.There are a lot of places that try to tell the patients or customers what they need, or don't need, or try to sell them what they want them to have rather than selling them what the customer wants, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record that is what this blog is about, I am trying my best to educate John Q. consumer so they can make an educated decision on who to buy from or what to buy.

FOOT NOTE: ( the best thing to do is buy from me! www.MobileEyeGuy.com or call me toll free for a free consultation 1-800-417-5650 I would be glad to speak to anyone and help them as best I can)

Most optical places are trying to keep from selling glass lenses these days, but this person is correct, it was their call whether or not glass lenses would be to heavy for them.I addressed this issue in a prior post, “plastic vs. polycarbonate vs. glass lenses” you may want to go and read it, but a quick recap to the glass issue, most opticals avoid glass because of the legal issues.

As far as frames go, some frames are made better than others, and yes some of them are pretty crappy, but even a crappy frame should be able to be reordered. I'm not sure why this person was having such a problem getting the optical to order them a frame, although sometimes what can happen is some of the discount places are selling discontinued frames, so they are one-of-a-kind and if it gets broken they can't replace it. But there's also a way around that if you can get someone to just take the time and look around in their inventory, they may be able to find a very similar frame to yours and do what is called a “lens transfer”, but when doing a lens transfer it is the luck of the draw so to speak because you have to use what ever frame that fits the lenses and you may not always be able to get the color that you what, but it can be done.It is just that in this day and age we lived in a disposable mindset society, use it, if it breaks, throw it away and buy another one. Nobody wants to fix anything anymore, they just what to sell it, not work on it,or service it.

OOOPS! Now my age is showing through on that statement.

Here is the second comment:You have an interesting site and I think I have a question for you. I recently had to get new glasses and they are now a little over a month old. I have worn them, maybe, 15 times. The problem? My lenses are progressive bifocals (to correct distance) and have a prism in each lense. I was talked into purchasing $140 frames which are too small. What happens is my perfect field of vision in each lense is literally the size of my thumbpad. Looking left, right, up or down outside that field, I hit the prism, or blurriness. This is tough since I cannot wear the glasses going downstairs - cananot see the steps and BOOM.My question, to fix this, I'm afraid I'd have to purchase another pair of frames and lenses - meaning another total out of pocket expense of $259. I haven't even spoken to the optician about this, because I'm afraid of seeing that cost come up. The first time was hard enough. Am I doomed?

Well….. in my opinion, No, you should not be doomed!But again it really depends on who you're dealing with and how much they're willing to work with you.First off, you should never let anyone talk you into frames that are too small for you, or that you're not comfortable with. I realize that today's fashion trend is to wear as small a frame as you can find, but you have to find a happy medium between comfort, utility, then style.

As far as the progressive lenses, in layman's terms also known as no-line bifocals, even prescriptions without prism, they inherently have some peripheral distortion, your optical center or best visual acuity is going to be somewhat limited, you cannot look side to side through the lenses, you have to point your nose at what you're looking at and try to stay in that optical center, and if your prescription has prism in it, it is go to intensify that condition.Most places, or at least good reputable places have what is called a satisfaction warranty,in other words, if you cannot see through a progressive lens then you are what is called a Non-Adapt, which means you cannot adapt to that style of lens and there should be a manufacturer's warranty where they can try putting you into a regular lined bifocal at no charge.So you should not have any other out of pocket expense considering the fact that the first pair you purchased has not yet corrected your vision problem.Don't be embarrassed or timid, I strongly suggest you take them back where you got them and make them aware of the problem your having, if they want to charge you for a whole other pair of glasses then I would get a copy of my prescription and go elsewhere because your prescription at this point has not been filled adequately to correct your vision.

As always I hope this has been helpful, all readers please feel free to leave comments or questions, and I'll see you next time.

5 comments:

I took your advice and I wish that I had good news. Unfortunately, unless I pay for a new set of frames and lenses, there's nothing to be done. I'm stuck with what I have. Needless to say, in two years time when I have my next eye exam, I will be going someplace else.

I am really Sorry to hear that!I can't beleive they are not willing to take advantage of the manufacturers warranty to put you in another style of lens so you are more comfortable.It would not cost them anything but time to make you happy??? Better luck next time!

I have a question that I think you may be able to help me with. If you bought frames and lenses separately at two different places, who is liable for damages? Here's my situation. I received plastic frames as a xmas gift this year. It was bought in California in December 2005. I, on the other hand, live in New York... so I couldn't go to the same store to get my prescription filled. I ended up choosing a place in New York to get the lenses. When I got the frames back from the New York store, I noticed that there were scratches on the top of the frame and tiny impressions of dots on the arms of the frames. The lenses also popped out easily. Being that those scratches were not there when I gave the New York store my frames, I asked them about it... wondering if it could be caused by overheating using that sand device I often see in opticals. They said no and told me to bring it back to the place where the frames were purchased and tell them to exchange it as a manufacturer's defect. But when I went to the store in California where the frames were bought, they told me that the people who made the lenses made them too small and overheated my frames while trying to shrink the frame to fit the lenses. Representatives from both stores talked with each other and basically the store where the frames were bought refused to exchange it as a manufacturers defect because obviously it wasn't. So here's my question. Being that the frames didn't have any scratches on them before the lenses were put in, are the people who made the lenses responsible for the scratches on the frame? These people say they aren't responsible even though there wasn't any written or verbal acknowledgement that the lab isn't responsible for any damage. They basically said that it's understood that if you bring in your own frame, they aren't responsible for any damage that is inflicted on it. Is this legit? Can they really not be held accountable for the scratches on my frames... which cost $350? Maybe you can see now why I'm upset... so upset that i'm considering filing a complaint with the better business bureau. Thanks in advance for shedding some light with my situation.

I am on my 'second' pair of progressive lenses and I am returning them to my provider. For some reason, no one bothered to explain to me (up front) what progressive lenses were good for and what they were not good for -- and that some people could not adapt to them at all. I am very frustrated about trying two different pairs of progressive lenses where my vision is actually worse for intermediate and distance than without glasses. Somehow the explanation that if I tried them for a few weeks my eyes would depend on them didn't really fly with me -- but I thought I'd try it a second time anyway. I have never worn glasses (fulltime) in my life. But as I get older, I have trouble at the end of the day with my eyes at work. The final straw was when I called back the provider of the eyeglasses and told them I just wanted my money back and that I'd just try using reading glasses -- their response was that I could 'trade' in my $350glasses for a pair of reading glasses -- my response was not for that price! So I am bringing them back, hopefully for a full refund.

I wonder why all the insistence on progressive lenses, they pose more of a danger than they are a help for some people. I guess if I had really bad sight maybe they would be a great thing -- but not for me anyway. Somehow glasses that give me the effect of permanently looking through a fish bowl just doesn't make sense.

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About Me

Hi, I'm Ben Ramsey A.B.O.C ….(aka Mobile Eye Guy).
I have 22 years experience as a board certified licensed optician. I've worked in all phases of optical - large retail chains, private practice at optometrist office, ophthalmology driven clinics and in labs fabricating glasses. I also have extensive experience in safety eyewear.